Saturday

Aug 31, 2019 at 9:47 PMSep 1, 2019 at 3:45 AM

The burning feeling of heartbreak was knocking on the door. The Crew finally let the Chicago Fire in.

Chicago Fire midfielder Przemyslaw Frankowski had the ball on his feet inside the box with Crew goalkeeper Eloy Room rushing at him Saturday night at Mapfre Stadium. With a swing of his left leg, Frankowski buried the ball in the net to tie the score 1-1 in stoppage time and steal two points in the standings from the Crew.

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It’s the third straight home game that the Crew should have come away with three points but ultimately left with one in a frustrating, penultimate home game of the season. It was also the third time this season the Crew (8-15-7) has allowed a goal in second-half stoppage time at home.

“This is too many games where we've had the same situation,” Crew coach Caleb Porter said. “We have to be mentally and physically stronger late in games to win games. And we have to be smarter as well.”

Just seconds after allowing the goal, Crew winger Youness Mokhtar had a chance in the final minute all alone in front of Fire goalkeeper Kenneth Kronholm, who made the stop. The ball rebounded to the top, and midfielder David Guzman took a crack, but Kronholm dived to his right to make that stop as well.

The Crew had a chance to take a two-goal lead right before the Fire tied it when Guzman came down the field with two options to his left and one defender between them and Kronholm. Guzman’s right-footed shot wasn’t a threat, going well off the mark.

Porter was repeating his words from previous games, which tells the story of the Crew’s season. The chances were there for the Crew to win, but the players were left sitting on the field in frustration, with another game not in the win column.

“If we want to achieve things, we need to be better in these moments,” midfielder Pedro Santos said. “We need to be killers and kill the game when we have the chance."

Santos built upon what has been a career season for him with a left-footed strike in the 27th minute that tucked into the left corner of the net for his 10th goal.

From just outside the semicircle at the top of the box, Santos created space around a defender with a quick hesitation move and cracked a shot into the lower left corner past Kronholm.

With Santos’ goal, the Crew led at halftime in back-to-back games for the first time since March 30.

Young defenders Aboubacar Keita, Alex Crognale and Connor Maloney had just 29 combined starts entering the game but held their own in this one.

Room made plenty of saves deserving of his first shutout. With the game creeping toward second-half stoppage time, he stopped two shots from close range, including one on the doorstep that forced the Crew to scramble just to keep the lead.

It ended up all for naught in another disappointment, in a season many will soon want to forget.

“We’ve got to get tougher,” Porter said, “plain and simple.”

jmyers@dispatch.com

@Jacob_Myers_25

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